My current research has led me into a fascinating, but cloudy history of the ancient world. In my study of ancient Rome I encountered many Greek influences so my Chapter 10 is a review of Greek influences in Italy. My history of Rome dates back to at least the seventh century BCE. I soon realized that there is a Greek presents in Italy reaching all the way back to the thirteenth century BCE. According to this history, some of the most remarkable Greek ruins are located in Italy as well as in Greece. The Greeks in the eigth and seventh century BCE were busy colonizing Sicily and Magn Graecia (southern Italy). These Greeks were major carriers of an advanced culture that developed in the east in Ionia and Greece proper. It was then carried to the west and the Romans, among others, picked it up and carried it forth to the barbaric and wilderness regions as northern Europe. It is amazing to me that Greek influences represent a great controversy within or among Italian scholars of the past and present. To understand the role of the Greeks in Italy, one must read or become knowledgable about this migration -- it is, indeed, eye opening!
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